I don’t honestly remember how the problem was resolved in the end… I can only assume that Babel must have found something else to buy… but that was certainly our first bad experience in Prague

You got the story a bit mixed up.

We didn’t have enough change anyway; it wasn’t just a problem with the 2′s and 1′s. At this point we didn’t have enough change to bother inserting any coins.

Anyway, I ran off to a newsagent’s to buy something, pay with a hundred, and procure some change.

I bought some softmints which were worth twenty-five, handed over my note to the sour-faced gremlin behind the counter … and watched her hand me back one twenty-cent coin,, two twos, one one … and a 50 note.

That’s right; a note.

Well that scuppered the plan. I then discovered that what she lacked in looks hadn’t been compensated by brain, as I took the 50, pointed to the till, then circled my finger over the coins. You know, “put this back in the till, and give me it like these instead please.”

She played dumb for three or four repetitions, then gave up the charade, saying something that clearly meant “Go fuck yourself, son; *I* might need the change.”

Worst of all when I got back to you was to discover that we would have been fine … if that machine had accepted twos and ones, of which I had two and one. Of course, it didn’t, and she would’ve known that when she handed me the change.

We got around it in the end because I went to a bakery stall armed with another hundred and bought a Snickers bar, since this cost over 50 kerchings, guaranteeing that I wouldn’t be handed back an unusable note again.